Of Mothers and Sandstorms
by Richan MMI
Summary: Bill brings something home he should have left at work. And on top of that, guess who's coming to visit?


Title: Of Mothers and Sandstorms  
Author: Richan  
Warnings: fluff, cursing, sexual innuendo  
Rating: T-15, to be on the safe side  
Pairing: BW/HP  
Summary: Bill brings home something he should have left at work. And on top of that, guess who's coming to visit?  
Spoilers: through HBP  
Disclaimer: Don't own, don't sue. Just enjoy.  
Notes: un-beta'd, as my usual beta is currently dealing with a colic-y baby.

Bill quietly unlocked the door, cursing himself for getting stuck in the tomb. It was six hours later than he normally would arrive home from work. Putting the key in the lock, he shifted his shoulders, trying to dislodge some of the sand still stuck under his collar. Damn sandstorm anyway.

Entering the apartment, he found the lights off and the soft sound of Harry's breathing on the couch. Quietly, Bill set his bag down and walked to the kitchen. He lit the lone candle above the sink, before grabbing a chilled bottle of butterbeer from the icebox, hoping that it would quench the dryness of his throat.

As he set the empty bottle down on the counter, a noise alerted him to Harry's presence in the doorway. A crease crossed one cheek from the small throw pillow that sat on the couch.

"Hey," Harry greeted, walking over and winding his arms around Bill's waist.

"Did I wake you?" Bill asked in a soft voice.

One shoulder shrugged against Bill's chest. "Not really. I wasn't really sleeping well in the first place."

"I'm sorry," Bill said. "There was a sandstorm at the worksite today and we spent the last five hours trying to clean up what we had already uncovered before."

Harry looked up and smiled. "I understand." He pulled slightly away and turned to the ice box. "Did you want anything to eat?"

Bill shook his head. "No. I want to check on Madeleine, and then I'd like to go to bed and sleep the next couple of days."

Harry laughed. "And leave me to your mother when she gets here? You _know_ that she'll want you to be checked out by a healer if you're sleeping that long."

He stopped. "What about my mother?"

"Remember the letter that arrived last month, saying that she would be coming for a visit while Arthur's still touring the Americas?"

"Shite." Bill could have hexed himself for forgetting.

"Did you tell her that we got together in your last letter?" Harry asked.

Bill nodded, still distracted by the fact that his mother was coming to visit. Where would they put her? Would she fawn over Madeleine like she always would and spoil her rotten?

"Bill?"

He looked down the small distance between their heights to find Harry's worried face. Gathering the willowy black-haired man into his arms, Bill rested his chin in the messy hair. "We'll work it out. Somehow." He paused. "Maybe I should ask for the weekend off, then?"

TtTtTtT

Bill contemplated that sleeping on the couch was sometimes necessary to bring one's life back into perspective. It also made him appreciate just how well of a good night's sleep he got when Harry lay next to him. Not to mention the fact that his back really, _really_ loved the bed, and it was protesting the couch.

If he'd been asked, ten years ago, he would have said that he would probably be raising beautiful little girls with his wife by now, along with rambunctious boys who made mud pies and pulled their sisters' hair. He had seen himself as a wiser version of his father, with a little more common sense and without an unhealthy obsession with all things Muggle. He and Fleur would buy a little house with the money he had saved up over the years living in Egypt, and they would settle down after the war.

But it hadn't come to pass. Bill had watched as Fleur had battled against the Malfoy bitch, defending Molly Weasley, and she had been winning. Unfortunately for all of them, they hadn't seen the curse that had appeared out of nowhere. The green blaze of light had engulfed Fleur, her round belly full of a life ready to start.

Instead, he'd been left a widower and with a daughter just under a year old. The irony of it all had been that the war had been long over at that point, and it was just a matter of rounding up all of the Death Eaters that hadn't been at the Final Battle, as it had come to be known.

The first few weeks, he hadn't been able to take care of himself, let alone his sweet, strawberry-blond daughter. Every time he looked at her, Bill had seen Fleur in her face, and he hadn't been able to handle it. He had holed himself up in the room that he had shared with Charlie during their childhood and had not emerged until he was ready. Luckily, his mother and a few Order members had been there to pick up the pieces.

One of which was Harry.

Bill smiled at the thought. If he'd known then what he knew now, he would have said that he was crazy. To go from having a wife to being with a man - when he had never even considered it - was something that he shook his head in wonder at. But being with Harry was wonderful, and he wouldn't trade it in for anything. Of course, he hadn't been the only one who was surprised by the almost instinctive parenting Harry had done, from changing nappies to making bottles, to playing simple games with the toddler.

A sudden itch down his back brought his attention to the here and now, and Bill tried to contort his body to scratch it, all without falling off of the couch.

He wasn't successful in scratching the itch or not falling off the narrow cushions.

TtTtTtT

Morning brought two surprises when Bill finally opened his eyes. The first was that the floor was actually quite a bit more comfortable to lay on than the couch, and the second was that the itching had spread to cover his entire back as well as his left arm. While he wanted to scratch, he felt lazy enough that he didn't want to move, simply because he was comfy.

"Daddy?"

He tilted his head towards the sound of his daughter's voice, trying not to get a crick in his neck at the awkward angle. "Yes, Maddy?"

"Why're you on the floor?" Blue eyes met his own as she sat down on the floor in front of her father, her legs crossed and her skirt smoothed over her knees. Her right toes wiggled uncomfortably close to Bill's nose, while her left toes were determinedly twisting in his hair.

Bill grunted as he managed to sit up just to avoid smelling his daughter's feet. He loved her, really he did, but her feet certainly weren't her best feature. She had a tendency to run through the streets barefoot, and they weren't the cleanest in the world. It was one thing when she followed Harry around their flat and green space on the roof above them, but another when she was playing with her friends.

A large cup full of steaming, black liquid was shoved under his nose. Gratefully taking it, Bill took a huge gulp without regard to how hot the coffee was. It didn't matter to him that his tongue was quickly losing all feeling due to the heat as long as the caffeine started working soon. When the cup was drained, he looked up from his saving cup to find his lover and his daughter regarding him with amusement written all over their faces.

Harry smirked at him as Maddy burst into a fit of giggles.

"Your mother will be here in an hour of so, according to the portkey station. I floo'd them to leave a message for Molly to just floo in." Harry's smirk turned into a genuine smile as he offered Bill a hand up. Maddy's giggles trailed off in his ears as he was pulled close to his lover. Harry leaned in to give Bill a quick kiss and a grope with his free hand, hopefully where Maddy couldn't see. "I'm fixing breakfast and it'll be ready in fifteen minutes or so. Did you want to take a shower while it's finishing?"

Bill wondered how fast it would take him to convince his mother that she needed some shopping time with her oldest granddaughter.

TtTtTtT

Cursing under his breath, Bill wished he'd remembered to tell Harry about his itch before climbing into the shower. As soon as the hot water hit, a slow burn had blossomed from the original spot where the itch had been to cover almost his entire body. Especially in his hair and... _down there._ He cursed again as he realized that, due to his mother's version of 'The Talk' he really couldn't think of what to call, well, down there. Shutting off the shower, he grabbed the nearest towel and made sure that it was at least secure before heading out into the kitchen to get Harry.

"Bill! What's that?" Harry asked in alarm as soon as Bill entered the room.

He looked down to find his skin covered in a series of angry red dots, some of which seemed to be growing before his very eyes. Damn, he must have gotten something on his skin at the site yesterday. "You'd better call Gadding, Harry."

"I'll do it, Daddy," Maddy volunteered. Bill just rolled his eyes and was glad that the chief goblin healer had taken a shine to his daughter, because he wouldn't give the time of day to a human child, otherwise.

Harry came over and guided him back into the master bedroom, instructing him to lie down on the bed. The towel was the only thing taking care of his modesty as his boss grumpily strode into the room, followed by an equally grumpy healer.

"Sand fleas," was the diagnosis. "Of course, they had to have been in stasis in that tomb for two thousand years, so they're a little angry."

"A little?" Bill and Harry asked at the same time.

Gadding harrumphed and set a large bottle filled with a blue liquid on the bedside table. "Rub that into the skin - every inch - once an hour for three hours." He glared at Bill. "It'd be less if you were goblin."

"You're off for three days, along with the rest of your team," Blent, Bill's boss said. "You had better make up for the loss of time when you return." He also glared at Bill before leaving with the Healer.

"I should start this before your mother gets here," Harry quietly said as the sound of floo'ing was heard from the other room. "Just let me tell Maddy what we'll be doing, because I don't think either of you want her to see you naked."

Bill shuddered at the thought, but then saw the humor of Harry's statement; Maddy thought most anything to do with boys was gross because they had cooties. Of course, when his daughter began dating boys, that wouldn't be the case. By then, Bill would be prepared with a variety of curses and hexes to use on any boy that tried to get fresh with his daughter. And if that failed, Harry could be intimidating enough by his sheer presence in the room, in spite of his physical appearance.

"Let's get started, shall we?" Harry said as he closed the door. He had grabbed a small cloth while he had been out of the bedroom and used that to spread the potion across Bill's skin.

The liquid brought with it a soothing wave of relief. He hadn't realized just how bad the itch had gotten until his chest was covered with the potion, having to deal with both his boss and the healer in his bedroom while he's covered in nothing but a towel. Instead of thinking about the itch, Bill decided that he would concentrate on Harry's slender fingers rubbing the potion into his skin.

Harry's tongue was sticking out the slightest bit in his concentration, something that Bill had always found incredibly intriguing. The younger man had been powerful even the first time they had met when Harry was fourteen, but Bill had noticed just how _shy_ he was. It was the little quirks like that - and his ability to laugh at himself - that had attracted Bill to Harry in the first place, and even now had him wishing that they could be together forever.

"Someone's getting frisky."

Harry's comment brought Bill out of his thoughts. "What?" Bill looked up into Harry's green eyes, which were bordered by laugh lines creased by his smile. He followed Harry's eyes down to where the towel lay draped over his groin, where things were stirring to life.

Bill wiggled his eyebrows at his lover when Harry met his eyes once more. "You do realize that if my mother wasn't coming, I would have my wicked way with you."

Harry winked. "I know. I bet this would make a great lube."

"What!"

Bill and Harry's heads whipped around to the door, where a flustered Molly Weasley was standing. The matronly red head was bedecked in a flowery robe and a wrinkled portmanteau was firmly grasped in her right hand, while her left was fumbling for support from the door frame.

"What do you mean that 'this would make a great lube?"

TtTtTtT

Bill gathered Harry close to him as the door to their flat closed behind his mother and daughter. The two women were off for a day of shopping and 'girly things' as Maddy had put it. His mother had recovered from her shock, eventually, when Maddy had explained to her grandmother that her father was perfectly happy with Harry, and that she was as well.

Bill's letter had missed her in her travels, the poor owl having crossed two oceans and a vast amount of land before landing in front of Arthur Weasley as he explored American Wizarding Politics. He had floo'd his son's flat outside of Luxor to tell his wife about her letter, too late for the situation. Of course, it had helped Bill shoulder some of the shock when his father had announced that he had been wondering when Bill was going to tell his mother his latest news.

His father may act like he was only obsessed with Muggles, but nothing could get past him without a thorough look-over. It's the reason why had raised six of his seven children so successfully - Percy still on the road to redemption eight years on. Bill had never thought on it before, but it was suddenly clear in his mind just how well off his father really was. The older man had given his silent blessing with a nod of his head before turning back to his wife.

He looked down at the black head that was nestled against his shoulder. Harry had been so understanding of the chaos that had taken place the night before that Bill fell in love with him just a little bit more. He looked closer at the younger man when he saw Harry was sniffing him.

"What?"

Harry looked up, his eyes glowing in the bright morning light. "You smell good."

Bill chuckled. "I would hope so. I just took a shower."

"No. I mean, really good. More than you usually do, at least." Harry sat up and stuck his nose against Bill's neck. Bill shuddered in pleasure at the nuzzling as Harry sniffed behind his ear. He moved enough to touch his lips to Harry's own ear, producing a shiver in response.

"What say we move this into the bedroom?" Bill asked in a whisper, knowing that Harry found it arousing.

Harry pulled back from Bill's neck and looked him straight in the eyes. He was silent for a long moment before he moved in and touched Bill's lips with his own. "I love you, Bill Weasley," he whispered, his lips moving in a caress as he spoke.

Bill closed his eyes at the feeling Harry's lips produced in him. "I love you, Harry Potter."

He opened his eyes in a flash at the peck of lips on his cheek and Harry rapidly moving off the couch towards the bedroom. There was an impish grin on his lips. "I'll show you mine if you show me yours," he laughed as Bill struggled to lever himself off the couch. "Of course, you know that this means we're going to need an extra-strength silencing charm and lock."

Bill eyed the younger man appreciatively as he followed Harry into the bedroom, his attention locked onto the broad expanse of skin of his chest. "I found a good one the other day. Let's see why those sand fleas were guarding it."


End file.
